Category Archives: Health Matters

Modern Eating Disorders

The term bulimia means excessive or abnormal desire for food which is also described as ox-hunger. Bulimia Nervosa disorder has the characteristic of repeated occurrences of binge eating and leaves the sufferer with sense for having no control over eating … Continue reading

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Changes – Losing An Entire Person

People go through changes in life; some for better, some for worse. On this blog, I want to get a little personal about myself. Some people have asked me how I lost an entire person, so here’s the story… After … Continue reading

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Multiple Sclerosis-What Is It??

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS) where the body’s own immune cells attack the nervous system. In Multiple Sclerosis, inflammation of nervous tissue causes the loss of myelin, a fatty material that acts … Continue reading

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Cure For The Modern Plague

Throughout the years, people have been searching for a cure for the great plague of the past couple of centuries, cancer. Some types of cancer respond well to Chemotherapy or, more radically, invasive surgeries like mastectomy, bone grafts or the … Continue reading

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Dieting For Health

There is no greater reason to diet than for your personal health and well being. Those of us who are overweight know better than most the risks and possible consequences that may result because of our weight. Much like smokers … Continue reading

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5 Reasons To Grow Your Own Fruit And Vegetables

5 Reasons To Grow Your Own Fruit And Vegetables

Having your own vegetable patch or fruit garden was once commonplace, but fell out of favor as the food industry become more commercial and supermarkets began to take over. In recent years however, more and more people have started explore growing their own produce again. Here we give 5 reasons why you might consider starting your own kitchen garden.

– Freshness

Fruit and vegetables taste better and are healthier if eaten as soon as possible after picking. Most fruit you buy from supermarkets and the like is picked well before it is properly ripe, to extend shelf life, and this usually has an impact on flavor. Growing your own lets you taste the freshest possible produce as it’s meant to taste.

– Quality

Commercially grown crops are often selected for their high yields, uniform appearance and long shelf lives rather than for quality and taste. When you grow your own, you can concentrate on the quality rather than the economics.

– Price

Much supermarket fresh produce is hugely overpriced, despite their advertising claims. Growing your own from seed is about as inexpensive as you can get, and even growing from small plants you buy is likely to provide you better food at a lower cost. With many plants, you can use the seed from one growing season to provide plants for the next – a self sustaining cycle that will cost you only time and effort to keep going.

– Provenance

More and more people have concerns about how our food is produced, with chemical pesticides and GM food a particular worry. With your own vegetable patch, you know exactly where your food is from and how it was grown.

– Variety

There are literally thousands of different varieties of fruit and vegetables, but supermarkets tend to concentrate on only the most profitable and easy to sell. This means that our choice is often limited to a few select varieties of apple, for example, rather than the hundreds of traditional kinds that exist. Growing your own lets you pick the varieties you like the most, and experiment to find new ones you’ll rarely see on sale.

There is of course a downside to all this – it takes time and effort. In these increasingly busy times, we might not think we have the time to spare, but starting small with a few herb plants on your windowsill, or even the odd tomato plant, will give you a taste of growing your own and might even be enough to hook you into it for life!
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Everybody Loves A Quitter!

I smoked for 25 years and tried to quit several times.

I’ve got a new bride, I’ll quit for my wife’s sake. (That didn’t work)

I’m about to become a father, I’ll quit for my child’s sake. (That didn’t work either)

I finally realized that you can’t quit for anyone else. You have to be selfish about it and quit for yourself. My situation was that I was a singer in my youth. I was in a couple of bands and liked acting in Broadway musicals. I even had my shot in the Stuttgart Opera in Germany… I loved singing.

Several thousand packs and cartons of cigarettes later my voice was no longer what it was and I realized that I wanted to sing again… I wanted my voice back… so I determined that I would quit for ME!

A few times in the past I had tried the nicotine gums but they didn’t help. I hated the taste and I would smoke while chewing. I never really followed the directions or the program. This time I decided to try a patch and to follow all directions.

I read the program, set a quit date and determined to sing again.

On by first day as a non-smoker, I got up and headed for my coffee maker. With my first sip, I knew I couldn’t do it with coffee in my hand. That was one of my smoking triggers.

Have a cup of coffee, have a smoke.

Eat a meal, then have a smoke.

Have a beer, light up a smoke.

When I pass a certain billboard, I light up because I had just enough time for a smoke before entering work.

I had to make changes to eliminate my “Smoking Triggers”

So I poured out my coffee and poured a glass of apple juice.

I took a different route to work so I didn’t see that billboard.

I avoided my smoking friends during break time.

I cut out drinking beer.

With the support of my wife who realized my struggle and didn’t carp at me, I was finally able to quit. You get over the physical addiction to nicotine after about 4 days, but the hardest struggle is with the ritual of smoking.

YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOR A WHILE!

My first day as a non-smoker was September 9th, 1995. Today I drink coffee, I drive in a smoke-free car, I live in a smoke-free home, I like to have a drink in the evenings, but I do not smoke. Every once in a while I get the urge to have a cigarette, a cigar, or to fill my meerschaum pipe, but then I remind myself of the struggle and anguish I went through before and I don’t want to go through that again.
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The Argument Against Nationalized Healthcare

The idea of a nationalized healthcare system has been around for a long time, and like most other social ideas, it sounds good when you first hear it. Healthcare for everyone in the United States would be a dream come true for lots of families but the problems with universal healthcare far outweigh the benefits. Many countries have tried this and failed because of some basic ideas that aren’t even being considered. Continue reading

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Combating The Stigma Of Mental Illness

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Mental Illness…
That sounds bad, doesn’t it? it sounds like someone is crazy or
retarded, maybe just plain weak-minded. You are depressed?
Snap out of it! Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? Hey! It’s over. It’s
in the past! Get over it! Bi-Polar? That’s just an excuse for bad
behavior. Scizophrenic? Get a hold of yourself, there’s nothing
wrong with you!
The mark of shame has been on mental illness for far too long.
This is due to misconceptions about the types of mental illness.
Knowledge is the key to erasing this stigma. Psychiatrists have
started a campaign to combat these prejudices.
There are six common mental illness, which are panic attacks,
dementia, eating disorders, depression, schizophrenia and
addiction to drugs or alcohol. People with any of these disorders
need understanding and compassion, not hostility and
disapproval. When patients receive negative reactions, it drives
them further into their problem.
Not all drug addicts, schizophrenics and alcoholics are violent,
even though that misconception is held by a large majority of
people. With the lack of education for the general public, many
think that a severely depressed person will be able to pull
themselves out of this problem on their own. On the other hand,
the majority of the public think that those suffering from
dementia, depression, schizophrenia, panic attacks and addictions
cannot be helped with treatment.
World Mental Health Day is on October 10th and the focus will be
on mental illnesses and human rights. The campaign to erase the
stigma from mental illness focuses on providing information on
types of treatments offered through self-help groups and
psychotherapy. They are attempting to lift the public’s awareness
of the types of mental illness that are the most common. It is the
desire of the psychiatrists to not only reduce the stigma, but to
allow those affected to have dignity and the same rights others
enjoy.

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